Statue of Nike, Greek goddess of victory, to be placed at Cordova and Thurlow

VANCOUVER -- A bronze, four-metre-tall semi-abstract statue of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, will be placed on the Cordova Street median at Thurlow next month.

The statue, which will be placed atop a 2.5-metre base, has been in storage in the city works yard for four years since it was donated to the City of Vancouver by the Greek city of Olympia in honour of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

“Nike” was delivered to Mayor Gregor Robertson and then-Premier Gordon Campbell when they were in Greece to begin the torch relay for the Games.

Editions of the sculpture have been donated to every Olympic host city since the centenary of the modern Olympics was hosted by Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996. It has an estimated value of $500,000, with the statue’s base costing $100,000.

Bryan Newson, director of the city’s public art program, said there was no appropriate site and no staff available to place the statue during the Olympics.

“It was more important to get a good site than find (another) site and just pop it in,” said Newson. “We think we found a site that will do it proud, and still have a relationship with the Olympics.”

He noted that attempts were made to place the statue at Queen Elizabeth Park and Jack Poole Plaza at the Vancouver Convention Centre, but went nowhere.

The site at Cordova and Thurlow has “a nice sightline to Jack Poole Plaza,” he noted, adding that one of the main issues was designing a plinth that could hold the statue’s weight.

The city will pick up the cost of the foundation, he added.

“The statue is a gift of state and we’re delighted to receive it,” he said. “There were technical challenges with the site, and we had to build a foundation to accommodate national transportation safety standards because it’s in a median.”

He expects the statue will be placed sometime in mid-October during a formal dedication ceremony, although a firm date has not been set.

The statue was designed by Pavlos Angelos Kougioumtzis, who lives and works in Athens and Delphi.

Kougioumtzis has major public sculptures in numerous places in Greece, as well as in Uruguay, Australia, Egypt, China, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

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Statue of Nike, Greek goddess of victory, to be placed at Cordova and Thurlow

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